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karen_jones
karen_jones
Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️
February 10, 2016
Question

Gainsight--What's in it for CSMs?

  • February 10, 2016
  • 8 replies
  • 131 views
We are a new GS customer and I need to introduce Gainsight to our internal CSMs next week. In order to gain buy-in and enthusiasm, I want to get at the "WIIFM." Does anyone have any ideas/thoughts about what's in it for a CSM who hasn't previously used a tool like Gainsight? A couple of benefits come to mind right off the top--automated messaging and playbooks, and at-a-glance customer health scores. What others can anyone add?  I might be able to somehow leverage the idea of the 5 Pillars of Customer Success, but if I do I'll need to put them into simple terms to make the CSMs understand that Gainsight will make their jobs easier. Help, anyone?

      8 replies

      ray_r
      ray_r
      Contributor ⭐️⭐️
      February 11, 2016
      The biggest thing for me was the fact that it essentially does my job, lol. No more having to go through emails, notes, calendars, or databases to find information I need. Everything is right there, all customer engagements are planned out and all historical data is available to provide context as to whats taken place with the customer through their lifecycle. The automated messages and playbooks are great and provide a lot of value from the standpoint of staying on top of things but really i think the biggest key in terms of value for myself and my team was time saved. No more bouncing between emails, excel, salesforce, notes, support tickets just to bring myself up to speed/remind myself about where i am with a customer. Not sure what the average number of accounts other CSM's here have, but I myself have about 30+, so when I need a quick refresher on where I am/what I've done with a customer and what outstanding/resolved issues exist (from a support ticket standpoint) Gainsight has saved me a TON of time. Days used to be a redundant cycle of prepping for a meeting, take a meeting, prepping for a meeting, take a meeting, etc. Now I actually have a lot of time between engagements to focus on other things as i have all the info i could possibly need in one place.

        karen_jones
        karen_jonesAuthor
        Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️
        February 11, 2016
        wow thanks a lot. Will you come and speak to my team?  ;) seriously this is very helpful and I will use this in my presentation. Anyone else?
          dstokowski
          dstokowski
          Gainsight Employee ⭐️⭐️
          February 11, 2016
          This might be a great resource for you too Karen - this is the work of our Gainsight CSM's and how they use Gainsight to get their job done well.
          http://www.gainsight.com/customer-success-best-practices/a-week-in-the-life-of-a-customer-success-ma...
            tzundelgainsightcom
            tzundelgainsightcom
            Helper ⭐️⭐️
            February 11, 2016
            Karen, as a Gainsight CSM who came from a company that was a Gainsight customer, I have a somewhat unique perspective. The biggest value for me at my previous company was the time savings afforded by having so much relevant information in one place: the Customer360. Usage data, support ticket information, survey responses, to name a few, all had to be pulled from different sources when preparing for a customer meeting, prior to having Gainsight. It went from a 2 hour process of pulling information from all of those sources into spreadsheets, then manipulating the data, to taking maybe 30 minutes to review the C360. And we had not yet even implemented CTAs in Cockpit, another time saving aspect of Gainsight which facilitates organized workflow management. I now use manual CTAs for my to-do list and am able to rely on automated ones to tell me when a risk or opportunity crops up, or an event needs to take place. Again, less time I have to spend digging around for this information. Time is something every CSM wants to save, and this is truly where the value lies for us. 
              lane_h
              lane_h
              Helper ⭐️
              February 12, 2016
              For us, we have been able to pull together data from several sources into one place. We are still working with our CSMs to move them fully into Gainsight (old habits die hard). One of the biggest wins we had with the team is being able to provide them insight into information they did not have before. They can now see all the support interactions as well as NPS in one place.
              Director of CX and Scale Programs
                dan_ahrens
                dan_ahrens
                Expert ⭐️⭐️⭐️
                July 6, 2016
                Hi Community! I'm bumping this post with some fresh new content! 

                I recently wrote an article for the Gainsight Blog that talks about this very subject - "what's in it for the CSM". I focused on the ways that Gainsight acts like a personal assistant helping the CSM stay organized, make their bosses happy and focus on the customers and moments that have the most impact. 

                Please check out the article and let me know what you think. And please do share with your teams as well. http://www.gainsight.com/2016/06/29/gainsight-personal-assistant/

                Thanks!
                -Dan
                VP of Customer Success at Forcepoint
                  karen_jones
                  karen_jonesAuthor
                  Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️
                  July 29, 2016
                  Thanks Dan and others who have responded. We are now just at the start of onboarding our CSMs and I'm planning to share Dan's blog post, as well as the others' comments about Gainsight as a time-saver. Some of the CSMs seem a bit daunted at the prospect of learning how to use yet another new system, so I'm hoping to counter their trepidation with the idea that GS will save them time in the end. 
                  tzundelgainsightcom
                  tzundelgainsightcom
                  Helper ⭐️⭐️
                  July 29, 2016
                  Karen, one of the keys, in my estimation, is taking the crawl, walk, run approach, as far as rolling out CTAs, so that the CSMs don't get overwhelmed in Cockpit right out of the gate. Please check out this insightful new post from another customer, "What makes a good CTA?":
                  https://community.gainsight.com/gainsight/topics/what-makes-a-good-cta 

                  Tracy
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